AT&T is going to pay nearly $52 million for the illegal dumping of hazardous telecom and Ewaste, in a settlement that is the first legal action taken against a telecommunication company’s telecom and Ewaste dumping.
Over the next few years, AT&T will pay $28 million to help its environmental compliance, in addition to $23.8 million in civil penalties and legal costs. The settlement, which still needs court approval, is a result of an investigation by the California District Attorney’s Office and the State Department of Toxic Substances Control that found that AT&T was “routinely and systematically sending hazardous wastes to local landfills that were not permitted to receive those wastes.” According to the investigation, over 230 AT&T warehouses across California had been irresponsibly handling and disposing of hazardous telecom and Ewaste, including batteries, aerosol cans, and certain gels and liquids.
“This settlement holds AT&T accountable for unlawfully dumping electronic waste,” says the California Attorney General in a statement. “The illegal disposal of hazardous waste can lead to serious environmental and health risks for California communities. AT&T will be required to implement strict compliance measures at its facilities that set an example for other companies to safeguard our communities against hazardous waste.”
The EPA says that AT&T has agreed to take or has intended to take on the responsibilities in order to prevent the company from illegally disposing of telecom and Ewaste in the future. AT&T will be going through three audits over the next five years, in addition to periodic “unannounced dumpster inspections.”
The settlement falls short of forcing AT&T to clean up the improperly disposed of telecom and Ewaste which, when disposed of like other trash, can leach toxic materials into the earth. An official order to clean up the telecom and Ewaste is something that many Californians advocate for.
“They’re being fined what amounts to chump change for a company like AT&T, and the public is not going to be protected in the end because wherever they’ve illegally disposed of that waste, it’s going to stay there,” Liza Tucker told Reuters.
AT&T isn’t the only company to be see legal action taken against them for its improper disposal of telecom and Ewaste. Target had to pay $22.5 million in a lawsuit that charged the company with illegally disposing of telecom and Ewaste in hundreds of California stores. In 2013, the owner of Co
lorado-based Executive Recycling Inc. was sentenced to 30 months in jail for his role in the company, which billed itself as a telecom and Ewaste recycle service but really had been selling electronic waste to overseas buyers. Executive Recycling Inc. was also sentenced to pay a $4,500,000 fine and serve three years probation for fraud and international environmental crimes.